by Saxon Andrew
“Tell me when it’s ready. Ana, it’s your show now.”
“What?”
“You are the only surviving beneficiary of Serge Romanov and you are a Romanov. Tell the planet what’s going to happen if we meet resistance going down to take him into custody.”
Ana smiled as Embree looked up from his console, “The channel is set up. I’m going to relay anything you say to the planet.”
Ana lifted her communicator’s microphone and began speaking.
• • •
Serge sat in his office and was issuing orders to his ground forces to prepare to repel attackers. The wall monitor illuminated and he saw that blonde appear on it. The Commander of Serge’s ground troops stopped and looked at the monitor with Serge.
My name is Ana Romanov and I am the adopted daughter of Serge Romanov. I have come here with a fleet of warships and we have destroyed all of the ships my father had to defend Romania. We are currently in orbit above the planet with more than ten thousand heavily armed warships. I want to make something very clear to you. I am sending three individuals down to the planet to take Serge Romanov into custody to pay for his crimes. If you do anything, and I do mean anything, to hinder us, the fleet has been ordered to raze the city Serge is currently in to the ground. The fleet will then bombard the rest of the planet and it will appear very much like Cruet after Serge destroyed it.”
Serge’s eyes narrowed and he turned to his Troop Commander, “Get our men organized and prepared to stop them!”
The Commander was staring at the monitor as Ana’s image disappeared and he turned to Serge and pulled his hand blaster out of its holster, “Come with me, Sir.”
“WHAT!?!”
“You will not cause the destruction of this planet. Now get up and start walking or I’ll deliver your body to them.” Serge was too frightened to move. The Commander nodded to two soldiers and they went to Serge, grabbed him by the arms, and roughly pulled him to his feet. They left the office and headed toward the elevator to take them up to ground level. Serge was hiding in his armored bunker far underground, which would now do him no good.
• • •
Ana, Desiree, and Leonidas arrived on a shuttle and stepped out in front of Serge’s Headquarters’ Building. They had been notified by the Commander that Serge was under arrest and was waiting for them to come and take him. A large crowd was gathering but they stayed far away from the shuttle. No one was going to risk causing a planetary bombardment. The two soldiers held Serge by the arms as Ana walked up followed by Desiree and Leonidas. Ana looked at him, “Serge, you look tired.”
“What, are you too good to call me father?”
“You are my adopted father, but I was little more than a tool you intended to eventually throw away. Like you did my sister.”
Serge sneered, “I should have killed you long ago. But you were a dutiful child. What are you going to do with me?”
Ana’s eyes narrowed as Desiree walked forward and pushed Ana aside, “Do you remember at the restaurant where I told you that I could kill you before your body guards could save you?” Serge’s head went back and he nodded. In an instant, Desiree’s sword took his head off. Ana screamed, “HE WAS MINE!!!”
Leonidas grabbed Ana and held her back from Desiree as he shouted to her, “You couldn’t do it, Ana!!”
“I’ve dreamed of doing nothing else!!”
“But if you did, what would happen as a result of your actions?”
Ana looked at Leo with an expression of rage on her face, “What are you talking about!?”
“Ana, you are the sole beneficiary of Serge. If you killed him, you would lose your inheritance. This planet needs you to get it straightened out and to remove all the teleportation devices still here! If you can’t take the planet, then chaos will follow and who knows what will happen with all those teleportation modules.”
Ana was taking deep breaths and the Troop Commander said, “You are now in command of my forces, Miss Romanov. What are your orders?”
Ana stared at him and turned to Desiree, “This is the second time you’ve stopped me from making a foolish mistake. Thank you.”
Desiree rushed forward and hugged Ana, “I’m so sorry I stopped you but the people on this planet shouldn’t die like those on Cruet.”
Ana nodded and turned to the Commander, “I want every major leader on the planet here tomorrow to meet with me.”
“I will start notifying them immediately.”
Ana looked at Leo, “Do you have the frequency in your communicator that Serge used to contact you to make the contract?”
Leo pulled out his communicator and began scrolling. He looked up, “Yes, I have it.”
“Please allow me to use your communicator.” Leo shrugged and handed it to Ana. She pressed the button and waited. After a long moment, the display activated. Ana said to Romanov’s Security Chief, “It appears you missed all the fun.”
“Not really. Once Serge decided to go through with his plan, nothing was fun anymore. May I assume he has paid for his sins?”
“You may.”
“Why are you contacting me? Am I next on your list?”
“No, I want to make a contract with you.”
“Say what?”
“I am going to issue a full pardon for you provided you do what I want done.”
“I don’t know that you have the authority to issue pardons in the new order we live in.”
“I can issue them on Romania.”
“Well, I suppose that’s true. What do you want?”
Ana stared at Serge’s former Chief of Security and said, “I need you to come back here and get this planet reorganized. I want all the teleportation devices along with all vestiges of the technology removed from Romania. You will run the planet and report in to me regularly.”
“I was actually planning to take my savings and run to another galaxy.”
“Won’t happen.”
“Why not?”
“My real father is now in charge at the Treasury on Kellinger and I’ve ordered him to freeze your assets. Besides, you’d always be looking over your shoulder fearing someone was coming to kill you. This way you won’t have to worry about it.”
“Why do you want me?” the Chief asked with a puzzled expression.
“Because you know the structure here better than anyone on the planet and I firmly believe you know it even better than Serge did. You can use this time to try and atone for what was done. I would have asked my sister to assist you but she’s one of Serge’s victims.”
The Chief inhaled deeply and said, “No, she’s not.”
Ana’s eyes narrowed as her mouth fell open, “WHAT?”
“Serge would have killed me if he knew but I just couldn’t bring myself to execute her and her baby. Serge took her husband and had his technicians kill him under questioning but I decided to send her and her baby to Lyris to hide. I took them myself and gave them enough funds to live under an assumed identity. With all the tourism on Lyris, she would be safely hidden.”
“Are you serious?” Ana asked with tears in her eyes.
“I really don’t have much choice about accepting your offer, so I’ll pick her up on the way to Romania.”
Ana was openly weeping and Desiree put her arm around her. “I always knew you were not evil like Serge but had a good heart. I will wait for your arrival.”
“I tried to convince him not to go through with his plan but arrogance and greed were his closest advisors. But I’m sure you already knew that.”
“I’ll be waiting for you. Thank you for saving my family!” The call ended and Ana put her head on Desiree’s shoulder and wept. Her sister was alive!
Chapter Twenty-Five
The inhabited planets heard the news about Serge Romanov’s death along with the destruction of all the teleportation units on Romanov. The new Leader on Romania assured the planets that teleportation technology was being eliminated and would not be used in the future. The planets sen
t representatives to Romania and hammered out how the planets would work together moving forward; they unanimously designated Kellinger as the planet that would oversee the currency and economic issues that arose between them. Three years later, a new central government was formed and the site of the capital building was built on Kellinger. Ana’s father was elected its first President.
When Gold arrived back on the Insectoid Planet, he was called in to meet with the Queen. She questioned him at length for a solid week and before announcing that the Prince had suggested to her that Gold was the best one to lead after the Queen’s reign ended. He was made a member of the Royal Family and learned after a few years why Gem hated being Prince. He was ruling when the new Central Government was formed and decided that the Insectoids would join the other planets in its formation and became a productive member of the new Assembly. Their technology made them the richest planets in the galaxy. None of this would have happened if not for the Pirates of Tortuga. They forged a peaceful time for the inhabited planets to gain their equilibrium and move forward.
• • •
Blakely sat at the Council Table and stared out at the area. There were many empty places where crews had died in the battle against the Romanov Fleets. The new warships had been distributed and the entire assembly had approved the manner in which it was done. The Pirates had come together in the fire and blood of the fight against Romania and they were now truly a brotherhood that only a shared sacrifice could bring about. But now it was time to get back to business as usual and to go out and start attacking commercial ships again. He lifted the microphone and said, “The last order of business is Captain Leonidas Alexander has requested to address our assembly.” The entire arena burst into cheers as Leonidas approached the Council and took the microphone from Blakely. He turned and looked out at the arena and smiled. He was one of them now. He wasn’t aware of it but one of the Councilors had turned in his resignation and the Assembly had unanimously chosen him to serve on the Council before he had come back from Romania.
The cheers only grew louder and louder until Leonidas lifted his arms. They still rained down cheers on him until Blakely reluctantly sounded the tone. The arena became silent and Leonidas said, “I asked to speak to you because I want you to consider a new future.” The Pirates all looked at Blakely and he shrugged telling them he didn’t know what was going on.
Leo looked around the arena and said, “All of us have a decision to make. While I’ve been away, I’ve been in contact with most of the large Commercial Planets in our galaxy. They are greatly concerned now that the Unity has been destroyed, their ships will be in great jeopardy from us. There is real fear that trade between the planets will be greatly reduced because there is no force out there to stop us from taking any ship we choose.”
Blakely said from the raised dais, “That is a good thing.”
Leo turned around and looked at him, “Yes, it does make our efforts a lot easier. However, the Commercial Planets have been discussing arming their ships. They will face a huge expense in making that happen but they see no other way around it. They have also seen an influx of new Pirate Warships arriving from other galaxies here because of the current situation. I offered them another way to get their ships safely to their destinations.”
Blakely looked at Leonidas with concern, “Are the Insectoids going to escort them?”
Leo saw the attendees grow nervous at that comment. “No, we are.”
The arena was stunned into silence and one of the members of The Council said loudly, “WHAT!!”
Leo looked out at the arena, “Consider this. If you attack a freighter and take its cargo, you will only be paid for about ten percent of its worth. All of the inhabited planets have agreed to no longer buy stolen products from ships that have been attacked. If you find a buyer for your booty, the price is going to be even lower, it will not be a seller’s market. For the moment, the commercial ships will be easily taken until all the commercial ships you have to face are armed with blasters to defend them against us. That will lead to many of us being put in harm’s way.”
Blakely shouted, “What are you suggesting?”
“The influx of new pirates from other galaxies offers us a rare opportunity. I have spoken with most of the largest commercial companies and they have agreed to pay us twenty percent of the value of a freighter’s cargo to insure it arrives at its destination.”
The room was shocked silent. Then they started murmuring among themselves. Leo smiled, “I know what most of you are thinking. How can you make a good living doing this? Consider this; we have about twelve thousand ships that survived the fight with the Romanovs. According to the statistics given to me by the major commercial planets, there are about twenty eight thousand ships transporting goods every week in the galaxy. Every ship here would be needed to escort at least two commercial ships a week and once trade starts to pick up again, that number could double. None of us have taken two ships a week, ever. And you would not have to fight to collect your payments. You wouldn’t have to transport the cargo you’ve taken to a potential buyer taking time away from making credits. The only danger you would have to face is one of these new pirates that are flooding into our galaxy and I hear from initial reports that their ships are not armed with blasters on their hulls, yet. I’ve had one of my officers to come up with a list of ships that need escorts and every ship here has more than fifteen waiting for you to start escorting immediately.”
Blakely was shaking his head and Leonidas said softly into the silence that filled the arena, “But one thing must be understood by everyone if we choose to do this. If anyone attacks a ship they’re escorting, the commercial planets will lose all trust in us and we’ll lose our contracts.”
A pirate yelled out from the upper floor, “Why do they trust us in the first place?”
Leo looked up at the Pirate and said, “Because we went to their defense and removed Serge Romanov before he could destroy them. That act of bravery going against impossible odds and removing a demonic threat against them has led to them admiring us. This is a moment in time that can change everything we are and make us rich in the process. A small freighter’s cargo is normally valued at a hundred thousand credits and you will be getting twenty thousand credits to escort it to its destination and you will be paid immediately upon arrival. At that moment, you will have another ship to escort from that destination to another; forty thousand credits in less than three days.”
The arena was silent. Blakely stared at Leo and said, “We’ll no longer be Pirates.”
Leo shrugged, “That’s true. But if you really, truly miss it, take some time off and go to another galaxy and have at it. However, this is all or nothing. Either we all agree to do this or we don’t. We can’t have piracy being done by ships from Fellowship and keep our contracts.”
Blakely looked at Leonidas and held out his hand. Leonidas handed him the microphone and said, “You will discuss this with your crews now. We will vote on this after the discussion but this time everyone here will vote, not just the Ship and Fleet Commanders. Please turn on your light when you have reached a decision.”
Leonidas went to his chair and waited. Soon he began seeing red lights start appearing at each crews section. The discussion only took thirty minutes until all the lights were on. Blakely looked out and said, “Each Commander enter the results of your votes and send them to my console.” The lights all began flashing once and going out. Blakely looked at his panel and stood up, “All ships but three have voted for Leonidas’ offer. Blakely looked over to the right side of the arena where the crews of the three ships were located and said, “You realize that you will have to leave Tortuga as a result of your decision?”
The Fleet Commander of the three ships stood up and shouted, “We do. We have been planning to go back to the galaxy we originally came from and visit with our relatives there. We voted no because we cannot participate in escorting other ships. However, we do hope we will be welcomed back if we c
hoose to return.”
“Are you willing to give up your pirating ways?”
“We are and we wish all of our brothers long life, wealth, and happiness in our absence.”
Blakely looked out at the group and started to speak but Leonidas shouted, “There is one more issue!”
Blakely closed his mouth and took a microphone from the Council Member to his right, “Damn this passing it back and forth.”
He handed one of the microphones to Leonidas and he said, “I am asking that ten percent of what every ship makes be placed in an account here on Tortuga.”
Blakely’s head went back, “Why?”
“Because now that we’re no longer pirates, we can live wherever we choose and don’t have to stay here in Fellowship. I want those credits that are placed in the account to be used to build luxury living quarters for all of us and to make improvements to our city so that no one will ever want to leave here. I want Fellowship to be the envy of the galaxy.”
A Tortugan Official walked up to Leonidas, “May I speak.” Leo handed him the Microphone and the official said in a clear voice, “We will undertake the building of a space port to service your ships that is also the envy of the galaxy. Since you are no longer law breakers, we will also be removing the restrictions of your having to remain inside the city limits of Fellowship. You are welcome to travel anywhere on Tortuga and live wherever you choose. All of my people honor you for saving them from the Romanovs. And for a change, we will be paying you to escort our ships as well.”
Blakely smiled and looked out at the gathering, “All in favor of putting ten percent into an account…” The room exploded in shouts and cheering. Blakely sounded the tone and when the room grew silent he asked, “And those opposed?” The room remained silent. Blakely looked at Leonidas, “Do you have any ships that need an escort?”
“I’ll have my Communications Officer send every ship here two weeks of scheduled commercial ships waiting for us to arrive.”
Blakely smiled and looked out at the assembly, “BROTHERS, LETS GO TO WORK!”